hallowed path
by Val-Creative
Summary: El doesn't go home. Momma wanted her to find Kali, and she did. Her sister needs protection. A listening ear. A friend.


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El doesn't go home. Momma wanted her to find Kali, and she did. Her sister needs protection. A listening ear. A friend.

Over time, Kali explains El's telekinesis and biokinesis, as best as she understands it from the records and research. The manipulation of actual body matter. Human or non-human. El could annihilate the presence of every living, writhing cell, liquefy bone, and rip apart the muscles of Kali's hand into hundreds of filaments without breaking open the skin.

They plot their mission alone over steaming, spicy ramen noodles. There's a new National Laboratory in Bayview, Wisconsin, and Kali is certain that one of the technicians knows Dr. Martin Brenner's location. El swallows hard, her mouth turning dry.

_Papa._

Axel complains about being left out, but does load up the van alongside Funshine and Dottie. It takes a day and a half to reach their destination, double-checking their weaponry and escape routes. Mick volunteers to take out the outside guards, knocking them unconscious with her ammunition gun. The others of Kali's ragtag friends keep lookout within the corridors.

Kali thrusts open the white double doors of the nearest lab-room, walking in before El. No masks this time.

"Morris Cook?" she calls out, facing a balding, ginger-haired man.

"… Who the hell are you?"

"You're the head technician of the facility," Kali declares, folding her arms. "And you have direct connection with Dr. Brenner. We need that information."

His pinched, pasty features redden.

"I'm calling security—" Cook mutters, reaching for a landline phone on the desk.

The overhead lights flicker. He spins around, trembling in fright, glimpsing his fellow colleagues lying motionlessly on the ground, over chairs and more desks. Their faces grotesquely, slowly melting into blackish-pinkened mush. Cook gag-screams into his hands, his eyes bulging.

"Tell us where Brenner is."

"_I-I DON'T KNOW__!_" he howls. "_I JUST HAVE A CONTACT NUMBER__!_"

"Where?"

Cook fumbles a bronze key from his lab-pocket, accidentally dropping it. He continues to hyperventilate, raking his nails over his cheeks repeatedly, even as Kali's illusion fades and the rest of the technicians murmur worriedly, backing away.

"Please—_please_ just go—"

El glances silently at a grim-faced, frowning Kali, unlocking Cook's desk-drawer, shoving the papers into her jacket.

"How many?"

"Wh-what… …?" Cook whispers, baffled.

Kali's dark eyes burn with rage. "How many children were killed during your trial runs?" she asks again.

"I-I didn't—"

"Seven."

El raises her hand at the verbal signal, focusing on the other technicians. They screech and convulsing, bleeding heavily from their mouths and the rest of their orifices. One of their eyeballs gushes apart, splattering across Cook's profile. Before he can make a single noise, Kali unholsters her hip-gun, leveling it and shooting him in the middle of the forehead twice.

"… I am sorry you had to do that, Sister," Kali tells her. Not rage, but remorse. El nods, scrubbing her wrist to her bloody nose.

"_Bad men_."

"Yes. Bad men who hurt children like us. We will honor their memory… destroying what's left of Brenner's experiment…" Kali's voice drifts away, as a restless El steps in, wiping the blood from under Kali's nose. Kali grins, pinching El's chin affectionately.

Papa can't hurt them _anymore_.

Their laughter fills the cold, sterilized area.

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_Stranger Things isn't mine. Requested by glove23 (FFN): "dark el and dark kali torturing people with their powers." I ended up more with a canon take on this. Because I don't think Kali is a villainous character really. She's a chaotic vigilante who doesn't kill innocent people. That's a line she WILL NOT cross. If it's the people who tortured her and El when they were little then yeah she kills them. Little kids? Gas station owners with rifles? Nope. Kali deescalates those situations calmly. I wanna see her deal with her trauma and apologize to El and BE SISTERS. HANG OUT. LIVE TOGETHER. If you are a Kali fan, raise your hand!_

__________((Want a request for Stranger Things? I'm doing 100-5_00 word drabbles of any friendship or romantic ship + any prompt until I feel like quitting. Rules: you need to comment here and provide a friendship or romantic ship and prompt. Please do not ask for anything with Billy Hargrove. Thank you. The only requests I'll be looking at is if you ALSO commented about the fic you just read as well. It's only fair. You came to this fic to read it and me doing something for you later on is a sweet bonus!))_________


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